Ethereal ✭Fred Weasley✭

74.

"Well we'll leave you to it... Penny," George rolled his eyes and began to walk off back to the Headless Hats stand. Lee gave her one last look before also walking off to look at some new products, leaving only Sophia and Fred standing in the middle of the shop. People went about their shopping around them, barely sparing a glance which relieved Sophia. No one was staring at her as if she was the new returned Sophia Lupin. She felt like she was actually blending in.

"Remember to drink that," Fred pointed down at the bottle that was still in Sophia's hand.

"I'll try," Sophia replied and Fred smiled lightly. He sent her one last wink as a form of goodbye and headed towards the back room to most likely grab some new stock. Sophia was now standing alone for the first time in the store, unnoticed and barely seen. She decided that she would make her way over to the Wonder Witch stand first, as she remembered when the twins would always update her on when they first invented the products.

She started going through nearly every product in depth, reading the back labels and smelling a lot of the pink remedies. The Beguiling Bubbles smelt the best, wafting with strawberries and bubblegum. It was amazing to see how many girl products the twins made considering they knew next to nothing about what girls liked and would be tempted to buy. But they had definitely hit the nail right on the head, because the Love Potions were starting to thin out quickly with countless giggling girls sweeping two up at a time.

Sophia made her way all throughout the store while continuously remembering to take sips of the disgusting potion in her hand. She cringed every time and even gagged at one point, making a boy who was standing nearby look oddly at her. Who would continuously drink from something that obviously tasted disgusting?

She had soon made it back to the Wonder Witch stand again and was pleased with herself at getting through the entire store. People had begun to clear out too as it was approaching the late evening, making it much more settling to parole the aisles and shelves. Sophia had been displaying a smile throughout the whole day at the many achievements made by the twins. She knew how much this shop meant to them and now they were living their dream. They could even be better than Zonko's at this point.

Sophia took one last sip from the bottle and breathed a sigh of relief at the hollow noise that echoed from the metal in her hand. She had finished the entire concoction and would now only have about fifteen minutes of looking like the stranger she appeared as. She had only been taking small sips so the potion would only last for minutes at a time, unlike huge gulps that would last usually an hour. No one had come up to her and she had eventually eased into a comfortable state of content when walking through the shop.

She went to start making her way back towards the stairs that lead up to the twins' flat, only to stop dead in her tracks when turning down the last aisle. She felt her heart stop its usual beat and pick up a much more frightened and fearful rhythm, her mouth going dry and her eyes going wide. The familiar platinum blonde that stood at the end of the aisle continued to browse the shelves with a permanent scowl on his face, picking up boxes and slamming them back in their place with disgust. Sophia felt her knees begin to shake and her palms start to sweat, the familiar feeling of dread and panic returning after months of feeling safe and hopeful that she would never have to feel that way again. But here she was, her world closing in on itself as one of the people who caused her such pain was standing less than three metres from her.

"What are you gawking at?" the ignorant voice snapped at her with his scowling face. He obviously didn't recognise her but Sophia didn't know if that was a good thing at this point. His eyes ran over her in an attempt to maybe recognise her as someone from Hogwarts, but found no recognition making him loose interest.

Sophia barely stumbled backwards and tried her best to find the cash counter or maybe one of the twins. A familiar wheezing began to combine with her heavy breathing and she barely clamped hold of the counter in time to stop her legs from completely giving out. Verity, who had just closed the till and locked it with a key, looked up startled from the loud breathing and the thud of Sophia's hands grabbing hold of the table.